Melania Trump & Akie Abe: Photos from Mar-a-Lago

Trump, Abe and other representatives of both countries are discussing trade issues through the weekend with Trump having withdrawn the US from a Pacific Rim trade deal.

Commerce Department data last month showed that Japan had overtaken Germany to have the second-largest trade deficit with the USA of any individual country besides China.

Before the joint conference ended, Trump also mentioned that his government is working on a better healthcare system to replace the Affordable Care Act. He has taken issue with the size of the US trade deficit with Japan and called for the Japanese market to be more open to USA automakers. “The United States and Japan will continue to implement and expand defense cooperation as laid out in the 2015 US-Japan defense guidelines”.

Trump did not initially appear to be wearing a translator earpiece during Abe’s remarks, but he did nod along every so often.

The American president also expressed great personal warmth towards Abe, who was the first foreign leader to meet Trump as president-elect, and said the two of them “have a very, very good bond”.

“We are going to keep our country safe”, Mr. Trump said at a news conference, indicating he would take more actions next week to modify the order or issue another directive.

Abe was the first foreign leader to visit then president-elect Trump at Trump Tower in Manhattan just days after the November elections.

Despite this, some Japanese officials were wary of Trump and were afraid that the meeting between the two world leaders would turn sour, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, Trump’s protectionist talk on trade stood to tank Japan’s economy, and his withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership stood to provide a boost to China in the region.

The uninhabited islets are administered by Japan but claimed by China and Taiwan.

Abe and Trump have been together in South Florida since Friday afternoon, when they flew down from Washington together with their wives on Air Force One.

“Would I rather have North Korea have them with Japan sitting there having them also?” This time he is bringing an even more lavish gift: a plan to create 700,000 jobs. But already he’s hosted two world leaders, causing some incredibly awkward moments – both for the heads of state themselves and the public forced to watch the meetings unfold.

And so the previously bombastic Donald Trump on Friday in Washington welcomed Shinzo Abe with an unprecedented level of hospitality.

In particular, the pair suggested that Trump “address currency manipulation and auto-related non-tariff barriers” in his discussions with Abe. Asked twice by USA journalists to comment on Trump’s cancellation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Abe would only say “we are aware of President Trump’s decision”.